Wealth Building Tools & Resources
Crawl, walk and then run
There are three requirements to build wealth.
Education to learn everything you need to know about managing money.
Tools to help you budget and increase the amount of free cash you have each month.
Platforms to easily and simply invest in assets that build passive wealth.
Here are some recommended tools and resources to help you along your journey.
(Some of these are resources I created, and some I have an affiliate deal with, meaning I get a small commission to recommend them (which I would have done for free anyway, and others are just great tools and products.)
Resources For Financial Education
First, subscribing to this newsletter and engaging with the community is a great way to learn personal finance.
2-3 times per week, you receive a detailed post simplifying money management and investing. Our goal is to help you use money to live your best life.
I also have written two books, one to teach you money management and the other to simplify investing.
On the money management side, I have written The Financial Freedom Equation.
In this book, you’ll discover:
The 10 things you need to learn to be great at managing money (page 1)
How creating multiple income streams makes building wealth simple (page 155)
A step-by-step guide to investing in the stock market for beginners (page 171)
A clear off-ramp to know when you have achieved financial freedom (page 219)
Master your money and take control of your life with The Financial Freedom Equation.
Free subscribers can pick up a digital or print copy of here and the audiobook here.
Paid subscribers get a free digital copy of the book and audiobook here.
To help you learn how simple it is to be a successful investor, I wrote “The Rational Investor”
This is currently a benefit exclusively available to paid subscribers of Making of a Millionaire.
I am working with editors to finish a manuscript for a print version of the book and am eyeing a release date of October 2022.
This book serves as a guide to developing a dead-simple & profitable investing strategy that anybody—that means you!— can use to build long-term passive wealth.
In part 1 of the book, I will present the evidence in support of a rational investment portfolio of index funds that is diversified between stocks and bonds and different geographic locations.
In part 2, I will examine the various bullshit arguments that people will make in an attempt to get you to invest in assets other than index funds. I cover topics ranging from stocking picking to Cryptocurrencies and everything in between.
In part 3, I review common and recurring investment narratives that bull$hiters will use to tempt you to try and time the market. I present the evidence that shows why the rational investor sticks to their plan no matter how scary the narrative of the day happens to be.
Investing is not as complicated as most people think. The real difficulty is staying the course over the 40-60 years you are likely to have money invested.
Become a paid subscriber today and get early access to The Rational Investor.
UPDATE: The Rational Investor is now available for pre-order on Amazon.
Need a little more hands-on help to get started managing money?
Then you might want to enroll in my personal finance Masterclass on Skillshare.
In this class, you will learn how to use the excel workbook as well as the six steps to creating a goals-based budget.
List out your financial priorities.
Set goals around each priority.
Figure out how much you need to save each month to accomplish those goals.
Figure out if those goals will work in your budget.
Make adjustments to free up more room in your budget or review and set less aggressive goals.
Automate your savings.
Tools To Help You Budget
Once you learn about managing money and investing, you need some tools to help you save more money and be strategic with your spending.
Here are a few resources to get you started.
Rocket Money
Rocket Money is an app that helps you;
Track your spending
Negotiate your bills down
Identify subscriptions you no longer use and cancel them
As someone who runs a subscription-based business, I am happy to endorse apps like Rocket Money because you should only pay for a subscription that brings you value.
I believe in the value that this newsletter brings our subscribers, but if they don’t feel the same way, I don’t want them to keep paying for it. Check out Rocket Money and eliminate recurring expenses that you are no longer using.
(Disclosure: I get a referral fee when I refer people to Rocketmoney)
You Need A Budget (YNAB)
You Need A Budget (YNAB) is an award-winning personal finance software and proven method to gain total control of your money. YNAB teaches four simple rules that show you how to stop living paycheck-to-paycheck, get out of debt, and save more money!
Look, YNAB is the king of budgeting apps for a good reason. Their system works; the average new budgeter saves hundreds in their first month and thousands in their first year using the YNAB system.
If you struggle to build or stick to a budget, YNAB is worth your consideration.
(Disclosure: I get a referral fee when I refer people to YNAB)
If manually tracking your expenses is your thing, I created this free spreadsheet that tells you how many hours you need to work to pay for each purchase you make.
Paying off debt faster
If you have multiple credit cards and loans you’re trying to pay off at the same time, you might want to check out Tally.
Tally is basically a new age, smarter version of debt consolidation. They pay off your high-interest credit card debts and personal loans and replace it with a low-interest rate line of credit.
That means:
Less interest paid.
Only one payment per month.
You get out of debt faster.
Here’s more information on how Tally works.
(Disclosure: I get a referral fee when I refer people to Tally)
Platforms To Invest Your Money
So, you read the rational investor and have the know-how to invest your money and have a budget that frees up cash every month.
Now, you need an investing account.
For pure Do It Yourself Investors
There are plenty of options for DIY investors to buy low-cost index funds.
But, the company that brought passive investing mainstream is Vanguard. They are the kings of index investing and have amazing research insights that I often cite in my writing.
You don’t need an account with Vanguard to buy index funds. Online brokerages like Schwab and Fidelity are online brokers that let you buy index funds at a low cost.
(I am not affiliated with any of these companies)
If you are Canadian (like me), you have more limited options for online brokers. The best broker (and the one I use) to buy index funds in Canada is Questrade.
(Disclosure: I get a referral fee when I refer people to Questrade)
For Those Who Need Help Building A Portfolio
Not everyone is comfortable building and managing their own portfolio. No matter how much financial education they get, they don’t have the desire to manage their portfolio on their own.
If that sounds like you, then you may want to consider using a “Robo-advisor.” A Robo-advisor is a digital investment platform. Using algorithms, it automatically manages your investments according to your goals.
One of the most popular Robo-advisors in the U.S is Betterment.
(I do get a commission for referring users to Betterment)
I think of Robo-advisors like Betterment to be a middle ground between hiring an investment advisor and managing your investments yourself.
If you aren’t comfortable managing your investments but you don’t want to pay the high fees of a traditional investment advisor, Betterment can be a great option.
Click here to get started with Betterment and automate your wealth building.
(Disclosure: I get a referral fee when I refer people to Betterment)
This list of resources is intended to be a living document. Are there financial apps or learning resources you have used in the past?
Let me know in the comments, and I’ll research them and consider adding them to this list.
Questrade vs Wealthsimple? I know you are affiliated with Questrade as mentioned above but I have started with Wealth simple before I knew about Questrade. Is one really that different from the other?